Status of Women committee  I'm just going to say three quick things. Funding allocations need to reflect the high cost of remoteness for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation. Capital funding regarding housing shortages also needs to be acknowledged, especially with the INAC formulas. One thing, though, with the fun

Status of Women committee  Anyway, we had only six weeks of ice roads or maybe less last year. MP Greg Rickford was very instrumental in helping some of our communities get funding flowing so they were able to get some of their housing supplies, diesel, and that sort of stuff up to the community. If we did

Status of Women committee  I agree with Marlene's comments about meeting with the women of Nishnawbe Aski. Our MP is Mr. Greg Rickford. It would be really great for Mr. Rickford to also attend the women's conferences that we have. I think it's also important that regular meetings occur so that you can take

Status of Women committee  I think it comes back down to policy. When you look at funding of education, policing, and social services, they're all provincially or federally funded. They all have different criteria to follow. Part of the issue is that they'll say, well, that's social services, that's not a

Status of Women committee  The NAN women's council undertook a major NAN women's development project. We went to the communities. We did personal capacity workshops and leadership development. Personal capacity workshops were about empowering women, building self-esteem, getting women confident and upright

Status of Women committee  I will, for sure. Yes, our development project, that was really important.

Status of Women committee  The remoteness and the high cost of travel. I don't speak Oji-Cree or Cree. I had some of my facilitators who did speak Cree. They helped us out. The language is a big issue. When it comes down to legislation like matrimonial real property, a lot of the women in the community, t

Status of Women committee  I'm going to speak before Chief Crane. The Nishnawbe Aski police service is just a police service. They're like peace officers. They're not a fully designated police force. Second of all, her community, Slate Falls First Nation, has about 260 members on reserve and they have two

Status of Women committee  Yes, it needs to happen. Working in silos really sucks. Working at NAN, we undertook a major NAN women's development project, and we had four different funders to do what we had to do. We achieved our goals and what not. However, the report writing and the travelling to get to th

Status of Women committee  We're going to divide.

Status of Women committee  [Witness speaks in her native language] Madam Chair, honourable members, my name is Christine Simard and I am the director of women's development, Nishnawbe Aski Nation. I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the committee's study on violence against aboriginal wo